A Driving Route Made Just for You

Drive time: The image above shows routes collected from more than 33,000 Beijing taxicabs over three months. Researchers are using the data to build customized directions. Credit: Microsoft

How long does it really take to drive from point A to point B? Though mapping applications have long given a guess along with directions, a group at Microsoft Research has built a system that gives a much more accurate estimate based on real-time road conditions and the user’s driving habits. The system also predicts which route will be fastest for each user, and will adjust its suggestions if a person’s driving habits change over time. The researchers presented their work last week at the 17th Association for Computing Machinery conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining in San Diego.

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We understand the extent to which behavioural change in transport habits and practices can be facilitated through the creation of a new form of ‘transport network’, based on extending social networking principles to transport users.